JUPITER, Fla. • On what could have been a routine ground ball skipping up the middle Sunday, Paul DeJong broke from shortstop like Kolten Wong figured he would, fielded the ball in the position that Wong would have predicted, and threw on the run exactly as Wong expected. It was a play DeJong has made dozens of times before and, if all goes well, will make hundreds of times again. And Wong wants to see each one coming.
He wants to know DeJong’s move before DeJong makes it.
He wants instincts for DeJong’s instincts.
“Every duo up the middle wants to have that counterpart out there that you know, and you know ‘I’m going to be with this guy for a while,’” Wong said.